Gift adds eight George Inness paintings to The Clark

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., has announced that it recently received a significant gift of art from New York-based collectors Frank and Katherine Martucci, including an important group of eight paintings by American landscape painter George Inness.

The gift of eleven paintings and five drawings was accepted by the Clark’s Board of Trustees during a meeting in March and represents one of the more significant donations of art to the Institute since its founding. The Martucci collection also includes oil paintings by Eastman Johnson and Gaston Latouche, as well as an early watercolor landscape by Piet Mondrian and five works by 19th century Italian genre painter Mosè Bianchi.

The Clark will present the eight Inness landscapes in an exhibition, “George Inness: Gifts from Frank and Katherine Martucci,” which will be on view June 9-Sept. 8. The presentation will unite the new acquisitions with two works by Inness, “Wood Gatherers: An Autumn Afternoon” and “Home at Montclair,” which were purchased by Sterling Clark and have been a part of the institute’s collection since 1955.

“George Inness has no greater contemporary advocate than Frank Martucci, who has studied Inness’s aesthetic philosophy, assembled a wonderful collection of his work, and supported the publication of the complete catalogue of Inness’s work in 2007,” said Michael Conforti, director of the Clark. “As we prepare for the reopening of our museum galleries next year, it is very exciting to contemplate the added depth these works by George Inness will bring to our American paintings collection, focused on the two other great painters of the late nineteenth century America, Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent.”